The founder of asset management firm Skybridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, has predicted that the price of bitcoin will reach $100,000 before the year-end simply due to supply and demand. “You don’t have a lot of supply out there and very heavy demand,” he said. His firm currently has over half a billion dollars in bitcoin.

Skybridge Capital founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci talked about his expectations for the price of bitcoin and his firm’s investment in the cryptocurrency during an interview with CNBC last week.

Noting that he sees ferocious demand in bitcoin while its supply is decreasing, Scaramucci expects the price of the cryptocurrency to double by the end of the year. The Skybridge Capital founder remarked:

I do think we see $100,000 in this coin before year-end … It’s just a supply and demand situation. You don’t have a lot of supply out there and very heavy demand.

Bitcoin’s price has been climbing rapidly, hitting multiple all-time highs over the past week. The cryptocurrency has already gained almost 76% since the beginning of the year. Its market capitalization has surpassed $1 trillion. At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin stands at $56,575.

The demand for bitcoin has been fast growing, particularly from institutional investors, which did not exist during the 2017 bitcoin bull run. However, according to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, 78% of the bitcoin supply is not liquid. The firm says: “Currently 14.5M BTC are classified as illiquid, leaving only 4.2M BTC in constant circulation that are available for buying and selling.”

Scaramucci cautioned individual investors: “The thing is volatile, and again I want to be cautious with individual investors … Be cautious.” As for his own asset management firm, he said:

We like it. We have over a half a billion dollars in bitcoin right now. And obviously, our bitcoin fund started in December. It’s done quite well.

Skybridge launched its bitcoin fund in December last year with $25 million of its own capital. The fund opened to outside investors in January and debuted with $310 million. Scaramucci said his firm “could be at the precursor of an avalanche of institutional investors heading in,” as orders were “building up from a large swath of institutions for the first quarter of 2021.”

Major companies have recently been scooping up bitcoins, including Elon Musk’s Tesla, which bought $1.5 billion worth of BTC in January. Other major companies that have already invested in bitcoin include Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc. and mega insurer Massmutual.

Furthermore, the Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy had accumulated 70,784 bitcoins as of Jan. 27 and has completed a $1.05 billion convertible note offering to buy more BTC. A large number of bitcoins are also acquired by investment funds, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and an array of bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) and bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

What do you think of Skybridge’s prediction? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

The price of bitcoin has climbed to phenomenal heights during the last few weeks and this has fueled the crypto asset’s mining sector a great deal. Despite the fact that the Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty has never been higher at 21.72 trillion, the hashrate has climbed to a whopping 180 exahash per second (EH/s) and there’s 23 mining pools dedicating significant hashrate to the Bitcoin blockchain.

For instance, the Microbt manufactured Whatsminer M30S++ with 112 terahash per second (TH/s) gets $37 a day. The popular Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro (110 TH/s) gets a touch above $36 per day in BTC. This is using today’s extremely high mining difficulty and electric prices at $0.07 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Older generation mining rigs like Bitmain S9s and other 10-14 TH/s machines are also making profits.

The high difficulty percentage has never been larger in Bitcoin’s lifetime as the difficulty today is 21,724,134,900,047 (21.72T). The next difficulty change is expected to happen in 12 days and the mining difficulty is likely to go higher if the hashrate and if the price stays consistent. BTC’s difficulty will jump a percentage to 21.94 trillion on or around March 5, 2021. This is due to BTC’s hashrate remaining very high and tapping 180 exahash per second (EH/s) this week. At the time of publication, the hashrate is around 163 EH/s.

Poolin follows behind with 15% of the hashrate and 23 exahash, Btc.com captures 12.1% with its 18 EH/s, and Binance Pool commands 11% of the hashrate with 17.5 EH/s. The fifth-largest BTC mining pool today is Antpool which has 8% of the network hash and 13 EH/s.

Pools like Viabtc, Huobi, 1thash, Slushpool, and Lubian have around 2.4% to 7.4% of the network hashrate respectively. Following those five pools is an unknown operation, Btc.top, Spiderpool, Emcdpool, and Novablock. All of which capture around 1 to 2.4 EH/s and most of the hashrate belongs to the stealth mining operation.

Bitcoin mining has always been competitive and hard, but in 2021 it has never been more difficult to secure a BTC block with 6.25 BTC and tethered fees. Nevertheless, miners continue to shatter new hashrate highs, and difficulty continues to climb because of this factor.

What do you think about the Bitcoin network’s difficulty obtaining all-time highs and the challenging mining difficulty increases as well? Let us know what you think about the bitcoin mining topic in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, has shared his view on the future of bitcoin. He is confident that the cryptocurrency poses no threat to the U.S. dollar. Referencing the unpopularity of various versions of dollars issued before the Civil War by banks, Bullard predicts the same fate will happen to bitcoin.

James Bullard said in an interview with CNBC last week that increasing interest in bitcoin, coupled with all-time high prices, does not pose a threat to the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Bullard is an economist who has been the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis since 2008.

“I just think for Fed policy, it’s going to be a dollar economy as far as the eye can see — a dollar global economy really as far as the eye can see — and whether the gold price goes up or down, or the bitcoin price goes up or down, doesn’t really affect that,” the St. Louis Fed president explained.

Bullard expressed concerns about widespread financial transactions using different cryptocurrencies that are not issued by governments. “Dollars can be traded electronically already, so I’m not sure that’s really the issue here. The issue is privately issued currency,” he asserted.

He then referenced the time before the Civil War, describing that at the time it was common for banks to issue their own currencies. He likened the situation to financial institutions — such as Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo — all having distinct brands of dollars, elaborating:

They were all trading around and they traded at different discounts to each other, and people did not like it at all. I think the same thing would occur with bitcoin here.

“You don’t want to go to a nonuniform currency where you’re walking into Starbucks and maybe you’ll pay with ethereum, maybe you’ll pay with ripple, maybe you’ll pay with bitcoin, maybe you’ll pay with a dollar. That isn’t how we do this. We have a uniform currency that came in at the Civil War time,” he affirmed.

Regarding whether bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies pose a threat to the U.S. dollar, Bullard stressed that competition is nothing new and has existed for centuries. “It is a currency competition, and investors want a safe haven. They want a stable store of value, and then they want to conduct their investments in that currency,” he described.

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis proceeded to make examples of the euro and the Japanese yen as competing currencies. “Neither of those is going to replace the dollar,” he emphasized, concluding:

It’d be very hard to get a private currency that’s really more like gold to play that role so I don’t think we’re going to see any changes in the future.

Do you think bitcoin poses a threat to the U.S. dollar? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

This week BiC looks at the top crypto related quotes on social media that made the news. The top quotes this week come from Elon Musk, Peter Schiff, and Mark Cuban.

The bull market is in full swing as Bitcoin saw new all-time highs daily this week. The total crypto market cap also saw new highs, along with a plethora of altcoins reaching new price levels. However, what did industry leaders and influencers have to say about all the action this week? We look at some of the top quotes within the crypto industry that made news headlines.

At this point, it comes as no surprise that Tesla founder Elon Musk is in the news once again. Musk has been extremely vocal about the market over the last month, especially regarding DogeCoin. Musk recently commented on the lack of decentralization related to the top holders of DogeCoin. He also had comments on Bitcoin this week following the recent $1.5 billion purchase of Bitcoin by Tesla. 

Musk spoke out about the Bitcoin purchase saying “Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company.”

Musk further admitted that he is not an investor, nor does he hold anything besides Tesla stock. 

Musk continued to criticize DogeCoin whales who prevent the decentralization of the project. Musk commented on the issue saying, “If major Dogecoin holders sell most of their coins, it will get my full support. Too much concentration is the only real issue imo”

The tweet was met with plenty of helpful insight into resolving the issue with comments from Civic’s (CVC) Vinny Lingham, and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. 

Zhao suggested that Musk start Mars Coin, to which Musk replied, “There will definitely be a MarsCoin!”

American businessman and billionaire Mark Cuban has been making waves over the past few weeks. The investor and Shark Tank participant has been actively involved in the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) space recently. Cuban has even released his own NFT titled ‘The RollUp 2021’. 

Cuban has also recently commented on NFTs as being game changing. The billionaire spoke on a Podcast recently and backed the idea of artists tokenizing their work. Cuban has even admitted that he sees parallels between blockchain development and internet adoption. The ideas behind its accessibility and ease-of-use are what he believes are key to widespread adoption. 

Cuban also commented on Ethereum this week. He stated that he believes Ethereum will be a better store of value than Bitcoin in the future. Talking on the DeFi blog the Defiant, Cuban expressed his admiration for Ethereum. Cuban has previously questioned Bitcoin and it comes as no surprise that the businessman prefers Ethereum. 

Bitcoin hater and gold maximalist Peter Schiff was also in the news this week for comments made about him by Max Keiser. Keiser insisted that Schiff was receiving Bitcoin payments on his website as far back as six years ago. Keiser further states that Schiff converted all Bitcoin to fiat, saying “He threw $100,000,000 into the toilet”. 

Schiff replied to Keiser, calling him a liar who is conning people into buying Bitcoin. Schiff insisted that he never received Bitcoin, but that it was automatically converted into fiat. 

Furthermore, Schiff explains that had his company held Bitcoin, and loaned the fiat to cover the customer purchases of gold, the company would have gone bankrupt. 

Schiff further reiterated that the volatility of Bitcoin would have made holding business capital in Bitcoin impossible. Schiff stated that “daily price volatility would turn a profitable business into a crap shoot.”

Of course, Schiff did not stop there. He also tweeted about comments made by Elon Musk. Musk had previously mentioned that Bitcoin is almost as BS as fiat currency. Schiff took this as an opportunity to further discredit Bitcoin, saying that Bitcoin “is even more BS than the paper fiat issued by central banks. Gold is not BS. It’s real money and better than both.”

This week also featured an interview on CNBC with newly appointed US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. In the interview, Yellen spoke about several topics including Covid-related economic stimulus. She also focused on cryptocurrencies, and stated that cryptos will be an issue in the long run. Yellen believes regulation for Bitcoin is needed.  

Yellen pointed out that, “regulating institutions that deal in Bitcoin, making sure that they adhere to their regulatory responsibilities, I think is certainly important.”

Another busy week brought quotes from some of the biggest players in and out of the industry. And the bull market has certainly stirred the hornet’s nest and awoken crypto haters, maximalists, and everyone in between.

Ryan is a Fintech specialist with a passion for cryptocurrencies and blockchain adoption. He discovered Bitcoin in 2016 when investing in a Ponzi scheme, and it was the best decision he ever made.

Bitcoin (BTC) leads the market again, after setting a new all-time high. Binance Coin and others found new strength after a brief cool-off yesterday.

At press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is above the $58,000 mark for the first time in the top cryptocurrency’s decade-long history.

The rally to the new all-time high solidifies a week of impressive performance from BTC. The coin has seen over 30% gains since Monday.

As is now widely accepted in the market, the bulls are firmly in control, with the next significant level for BTC being the $60,000 mark.

Indeed, last week’s top-performing alts are also experiencing the “pull-up” effect of the top cryptocurrency. After settling down yesterday, Binance Coin (BNB), is back above $300 at press time, after dipping to the low $250s.

Moreover, the newly-famous alternative to the Ethereum-based Uniswap, PancakeSwap (CAKE), is on its way back to the $20 levels.

In fact, the strong performance comes as the total value of the cryptocurrency market (as measured by the global market capitalization), sits at just under $1.8 trillion at press time.

Crypto-bulls are confident that at some point next week, the $2 trillion level will be surpassed.

Accordingly, traders and investors alike are re-balancing their portfolios to reflect the high-performing altcoin market. As reported earlier, Tether (USDT) lost three places in terms of market capitalization rankings as investors opted for BNB, Polkadot (DOT), and Cardano (ADA) instead of stability.

This is despite Tether minting record amounts of the stablecoin in recent months.

Moreover, although the market is optimistic, there is reason to believe the euphoria stage has not yet kicked in as traders choose to buy cryptocurrencies outright instead of using leverage.

This suggests they plan to “hodl” for the long run.

In other news, YouTube star Logan Paul released his own non-fungible tokens (NFTs) this weekend. In just one day, the star raised over $3.5 million in an auction held on the NFT marketplace Bondly.

As Ripple Labs prepares for its first hearing tomorrow, it was revealed that former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) head Mary Jo White will represent the company and its executives in the case.

In an interview with Fortune Magazine, the former head called the SEC decision to bring charges against the decentralized payments processing company “dead wrong”.

In Canada, analysts expect several newly launched BTC ETFs to attract even more investment than they did in just two days.

So on the whole, the market is looking at a bright week ahead.

Emmanuel entered the cryptocurrency space in 2013 as a cryptocurrency broker. He is a crypto-enthusiast, entrepreneur, and investor, who has built and led several projects and communities in the space. He is CEO and co-founder of Provence Intelligence, a boutique crypto-consultancy firm that aims to bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency and DLT space and the traditional world. Interests include DeFi, non-blockchain DLTs, and the synthetic derivatives space.

As Bitcoin set new highs this week, derivatives traders kept the average funding rate for Bitcoin perpetual swaps low. This suggests that they are expecting BTC to climb further.

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, the average funding rate for Bitcoin (BTC) perpetual swaps across major cryptocurrency exchanges remains at 0.05%.

This is despite BTC rallying over 21% this week, breaking the $50k mark to set a new all-time high of $57,752.78 at press time.

The lack of any marked increase in funding rates for the novel swaps suggests a couple of things. First of all: investors and traders are buying BTC in the spot markets rather than using leverage.

Moreover, the average funding rate remaining slightly above zero indicates that traders doing BTC perpetual swaps are not ready to enter short positions just yet, despite the top cryptocurrency’s record high price. In other words – they don’t see the price dropping.

Compounded together, these two observations suggest the market expects BTC to go even higher.

A perpetual swap (or future) is an advanced form of financial instrument. It allows traders to bet on the future price of an underlying asset, in this case, BTC.

A normal future obligates a trader to buy its underlying asset at a pre-agreed price at a specific date in the future. This date is called the future’s “expiration” or “settlement” date.

Traders can also trade futures in a futures’ market before the settlement date. This means the price of futures can change. However, as the settlement date approaches, the future’s price normally converges to the price of the underlying asset.

Perpetual futures differ in that they have no settlement date; traders can hold them in perpetuity unless liquidated. Accordingly, their prices can diverge drastically from the underlying asset (if traded) as they have no settlement date to anchor them.

Therefore, major cryptocurrency exchanges use a funding rate mechanism to help keep the price of perpetual futures close to the price of their underlying assets.

The funding rate comprises of an interest rate, set by the exchange, and a premium (the price difference between the future and the asset), set by the market.

When the price of the perpetual future is significantly higher than its underlying asset, the funding rate increases and vice versa.

The funding rate is paid between traders depending on whether it is positive or negative. In other words, long position holders pay short position holders when the funding rate is positive and vice versa.

On most exchanges, the payment occurs after a set interval (e.g. on Binance, traders make payments every eight hours).

Perpetual swap traders inevitably make decisions based on the market of the underlying asset. However, their decisions often provide an insight into the level of risk the market is willing to assume.

In this case, as Bitcoin soared past the $40,000 mark and then the $50,000 mark, traders seemingly opted to buy and hold BTC itself rather than use leverage.

As a result, the funding rate remained low. Moreover, historically, as BTC rallied without a break in sight, short traders came out in droves.

However, this time, perhaps due to BTC’s growing interest from “smart money” or public endorsement from celebrities, they seem to be non-existent.

Whether this will continue, only time will tell. But with the five-figure territory now solidly covered, $100,000 per Bitcoin seems very possible.

And the market seems to expect as much.

Emmanuel entered the cryptocurrency space in 2013 as a cryptocurrency broker. He is a crypto-enthusiast, entrepreneur, and investor, who has built and led several projects and communities in the space. He is CEO and co-founder of Provence Intelligence, a boutique crypto-consultancy firm that aims to bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency and DLT space and the traditional world. Interests include DeFi, non-blockchain DLTs, and the synthetic derivatives space.

A Chinese tea retailer is looking to make its inception into the bitcoin mining business. Publicly-listed Urban Tea announced the expansion of its operations by appointing two executives to pursue its crypto plans.

Per the announcement, Urban Tea Inc. hired Fengdan Zhou as the company’s new chief operating officer and Dr. Yunfei Song as an independent director. The tea retailer expects the new roles to lead the “company’s critical strategic expansion in blockchain and cryptocurrency mining.”

Zhou will look forward to implementing the bitcoin (BTC) business plan of the firm. Her experience includes having worked in blockchain data centers across Southeast Asia and managing crypto mining farms. Moreover, she has expertise in crypto hardware wallet development, the announcement details.

Also, Dr. Song comes from an academic background, specifically being a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In fact, his expertise fields cover blockchain technology, crypto mining, artificial intelligence, among others.

Yi Long, CEO of Urban Tea, praised the widespread popularity that cryptos have gained recently. Also, he pointed out that the “world’s financial experts” have been building confidence in the future of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Long further commented on Zhou and Dr. Song’s hirings:

We expect that their industry expertise, combined with our growth strategy, will lead our expansion plan into the cryptocurrency mining industry. Going forward, we expect Urban Tea will start expanding into blockchain ecology, such as cryptocurrency mining, blockchain mine construction and maintenance, and cryptocurrency exchange operations.

Urban Tea, based in Hunan, China, was founded in 2011, and it’s currently listed in Nasdaq as MYT. As of press time, the company’s shares trade at $6.05, with a $45 million market capitalization. This maneuver is their first crypto-related business made over the company’s history.

There are some precedents of tea retailers joining the crypto industry. Long Island Iced Tea Corp, another publicly listed company, purchased 1,000 units of Antminer S9 manufactured by Bitmain in 2018 to join the crypto mining business. Afterward, they rebranded the business to “Long Blockchain Corp.”

However, the venture ended in a disaster. When Long Blockchain Corp acquired the crypto hardware, its stocks jumped by 500%. But mining’s plans went to the trash when crypto’s bears appeared in February 2018.

When Long Blockchain Corp’s shares were delisted by Nasdaq, the company also had to sell its tea business.

The story didn’t end there, as the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission then launched an investigation over allegations of insider trading and securities fraud.

What are your thoughts on Urban Tea’s announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.

Use Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to play online casino games here.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Perhaps one of the simplest answers regarding Bitcoin’s value is that it’s “worth what somebody will pay for it,” as stated by billionaire Mark Cuban in 2019. A number of other components factor into the equation, however, making BTC unique over its competition. Although, Bitcoin is still young when compared to assets such as gold and stocks, so it must continue proving itself and gaining traction. The asset’s failure is still possible and is also prone to volatility.

People can buy Bitcoin on a crypto exchange and send it to a wallet they personally control on a device or online. One of Bitcoin’s selling points is that users can send the asset virtually anywhere in the world quickly, at any time, without divulging personal information, as well as control their holdings themselves.

Fidelity Digital Assets published a report on Bitcoin in October 2020 that found “almost no relationship between the returns of bitcoin and other assets” between the start of 2015 and September 2020.

Since entering the BTC arena, MicroStrategy’s Saylor, who sits in fourth place on Cointelegraph’s list of the top 100 people in blockchain for 2021, has taken numerous interviews in which he has clearly articulated valuable aspects of Bitcoin. Saylor said in a February 2021 interview posted by Cointelegraph:

“It’s the first successfully engineered monetary network in the history of the world,” Saylor said after referencing aspects of science and engineering, as well as his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Bitcoin is rotating this year from the old insight narrative which is, it’s an uncorrelated speculative asset traded by retail traders on off-shore exchanges with leverage that’s kind of cool,” Saylor said in a December 2020 interview with HyperChange. “It’s rotating to a new insight, which is it’s the world’s best long-duration investment-grade safe-haven treasury asset,” he added.

Saylor continued to mention Bitcoin’s long-term potential as a wealth storage vehicle that sits away from government control, as well as a different mindset that comes with such a use case, leading participants to hold BTC for extended periods of time rather than trading for shorter-term profits.

Unlike national dollars, gold or other assets, Bitcoin holds a finite supply. Only 21 million BTC will ever exist, based on the digital asset’s code. At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s circulating supply is around 18.6 million. Through mining, more BTC is released from its maximum supply into its circulating supply, but that maximum supply will not change. Meanwhile, the work and expenses put into creating BTC mark the more tangible point from where Bitcoin derives its value from.

With Bitcoin, holders can also store and transfer large sums of money much more easily than other hedge assets, such as gold or real estate. Bitcoin has seen its fair share of comparisons to gold over the years — at times being called digital gold.

“You can’t debase it; it’s not a fiat derivative like a bond or a stock,” Saylor said of Bitcoin during a January 2021 interview with Nomad Capitalist. “If you’re looking to the long-term outlook — 10 years, 20 years, 30 years — then owning Bitcoin is like encrypting your monetary energy in a way that will preserve it without any degradation over the long term,” Saylor explained.

Investors can purchase fractional parts of a Bitcoin, such as 0.001 BTC, for example. Bitcoin can also be viewed as an industry or ecosystem of activity and development, similar to the internet when it took off decades ago, and buying Bitcoin gives the investor financial exposure to that ecosystem, according to Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, a crypto exchange.

“It’s sort of like owning a piece of the race track without having to bet on which horse is going to win,” Winklevoss said during a December 2020 interview with podcaster, YouTuber and entrepreneur Casey Adams. “As long as the races are running, you make some money,” Winklevoss added.

Speaking on CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell’ show, recently-confirmed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Bitcoin regulation should be focused on investor protection.

Yellen pointed to Bitcoin’s volatility, and said that it had been this way in recent years. She stated that “regulating institutions that deal in Bitcoin, making sure that they adhere to their regulatory responsibilities, I think is certainly important.”

She also pointed to the need to ensure that Bitcoin is not used for “illicit transactions”.

How the Treasury Department will proceed with cryptocurrency is still unclear, given the lack of detail from Yellen to date on the matter. As head of the Federal Reserve, she was cool toward crypto overall. However, as she did in the CNBC interview, she pointed directly toward the use of Bitcoin in illicit transactions.  Yellen has also called for better cooperation with other government agencies regarding crypto regulation. A draft 114-page paper on the directions of the department under her helm was circulated during her Senate hearings. However, the draft gives little detail on this cooperation.

One area in which the Treasury Department will have to cooperate is in terms of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). However, a digital dollar is not a high priority, at the public level, for the Federal Reserve. As a former Chair of the Federal Reserve herself, Yellen showed little interest in creating a CBDC. Current Chair Jerome Powell has not shown greater urgency, and previously stated that “it is more important to get it right than to be first”.

Yellen will need to come to terms with a Securities and Exchange Commission that is changing direction. Yellen’s declaration regarding closer cooperation resonates with SEC’s own ‘Crypto Mom’, Commissioner Hester Pierce. In an interview on Feb. 14, Pierce called for clarity and greater uniformity in Washington’s regulation of cryptocurrency. 

The SEC faces the aftereffects of a last-minute action by then-outgoing Commissioner Jay Clayton, who initiated a suit against Ripple and two of its CEOs for the sale of a total of $1.8 billion in unregistered securities.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse maintains that the company already has a government ruling that it is not a security. In fact, Ripple’s XRP token is licensed now under the State of New York as a digital currency. However, the SEC has not ruled on XRP, so the hodge-podge of regulation could still leave Ripple in trouble.

In the CNBC interview, Secretary Yellen focused on the latest round of COVID-related economic stimulus. The economic effect of the pandemic will remain her priority, but cryptocurrency issues are certain to rise under her tenure.

James Hydzik is a finance and technology writer and editor based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is especially interested in the development of regulation in the face of increasingly rapid technological change. He previously covered the CEE region for Financial Times banking and FDI magazines. An ardent believer in gut renovating eastern Europe one flat at a time, he currently holds more home renovation gear than crypto.

The market’s top two cryptocurrencies lead the charge as the weekend begins, setting new all-time highs as the week’s best performers settle.

First-mover Bitcoin (BTC) took its first-place rank in the cryptocurrency market seriously today, setting a new all-time high of $57,851.30 just hours ago.

BTC now has a market capitalization of $1.063 trillion, another record high. The astronomical performance is attracting investors from all round, both retail and institutional.

In fact, there are growing concerns that an inevitable supply shortage looms.

The market’s second most valuable cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH), is not far behind. Earlier today, ETH smashed records, breaking above the $2,000 mark for the first time in its history.

While ETH holders are likely to be delighted with the second cryptocurrency breaking this frontier, the rise in gas fees is already concerning to users.

Indeed, the top pair may have taken some of the momenta away from the week’s top performers. After topping $300 for the first time yesterday, before hitting an all-time high of $339.94, Binance Coin (BNB) is seemingly taking a breather as the weekend begins.

Interestingly, traders seem to be choosing to buy and hold over opening leveraged positions.

BeInCrypto reported earlier that the funding rate for BTC denominated perpetual swaps across major exchanges, remained low at 0.05%.

This also suggests shorters have not yet found a suitable entry for the top cryptocurrency, indicating the market expects more heights.

Confirming this sentiment, it was revealed that newly launched BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw record investments last week.

After winning approval from regulators on Feb. 11, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, hosted by Canadian firm Purpose Investments, gained over $400 million in assets under management (AUM) after just two days of trading.

Moreover, several other ETFs have either launched or are seeking approval to launch on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

The interest in BTC ETFs indicates a move towards the cryptocurrency market by seasoned institutional investors.

Despite the seeming seal of approval from “smart money” investors, regulators remain cautious. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently reiterated concerns about the top cryptocurrency’s volatility, calling BTC “highly speculative”.

Moreover, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against Ripple Labs still looms over the space with a hearing scheduled in two days.

The results of this case could impact the classification of cryptocurrencies in the United States.

At least for now, the prospect is doing no harm to the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin seems to carry on with a moon-targeted rally.

Emmanuel entered the cryptocurrency space in 2013 as a cryptocurrency broker. He is a crypto-enthusiast, entrepreneur, and investor, who has built and led several projects and communities in the space. He is CEO and co-founder of Provence Intelligence, a boutique crypto-consultancy firm that aims to bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency and DLT space and the traditional world. Interests include DeFi, non-blockchain DLTs, and the synthetic derivatives space.

Intriguingly, Binance Coin (BNB) has moved into the top three after rallying 42% in the last 24 hours. BNB is now the third-largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of $40 billion. The Binance exchange native token is currently trading at $262.

Bitcoin bulls are not relenting in the fight gains toward $55,000 (near-term goal). They started by defending support above $50,000 and later ensured that BTC settled above $51,000. The pioneer cryptocurrency spent some time at the ascending channel’s middle boundary, but bulls seem to have increased their positions, sending to a new all-time high of $52,993 on Coinbase.

The bullish outlook is set to remain in place in the coming sessions based on the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD). As the MACD line (blue) crosses above the signal line, the bullish impulse gets stronger. A break above $53,000 is likely to trigger the fear of missing out (FOMO), which could leave open air toward $55,000.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart

A correction will appear if Bitcoin fails to close the day above $52,000. An increase in overhead pressure will also jeopardize the support at the channel’s middle boundary. While $51,000 has functioned as an anchor before, BTC could retest $50,000, a rather make or break price level.

Ethereum, like Bitcoin, has settled above a vital price level. The break above $1,900 brought it close to $2,000. However, closing the day above the same level is viewed as a bullish signal. For now, all eyes are glued on $2,000, which may trigger FOMO as investors speculate the potential rise to $3,000.

The MACD confirms that bulls are in control, hence rising past $2,000 during the weekend session. If the uptrend stalls, a consolidation period above $1,900 will allow bulls to focus on higher levels as they plan their next attack mission.

ETH/USD 4-hour chart

Note that any bearish signals may trigger massive losses under $1,900, as investors could panic sell to take profit. Near-term support is the 50 Simple Moving Average (SMA) at $1,820. Other vital levels to keep in mind are $1,800, the 100 SMA currently at $1,750, and the recent support at $1,660.

Ripple established support at the 100 SMA on the 4-hour chart, setting the cryptocurrency on a recovery path. Gaining ground above $0.55 seems to have triggered more buying orders increasing the tailwind behind the cross-border token.

At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $0.57 after breaking past the 50 SMA. On the upside, some resistance is expected at $0.6 but bulls eye $0.65 to be a stepping stone for gains back to $0.75 (yearly highs).

The MACD highlights a bullish impulse and cross above the midline to validate the uptrend. On the other hand, support above the 50 SMA must be defended to ensure that the uptrend remains intact.

XRP/USD 4-hour chart

A correction may come into the picture if XRP slices through the 50 SMA on the flip side. The support at $0.5 must remain unshaken; otherwise, losses may be triggered towards the 100 SMA at $0.5.

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization and volume, hit a record high on Thursday, lifted by growing institutional interest in the space, and more than a week after its futures were launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The virtual currency reached an all-time peak of $1,938 and was last up 4.6% at $1,936.94.

The CME last week launched futures on ether, the digital currency or token that facilitates transactions on the ethereum blockchain. In the crypto world, the terms ether and ethereum have become interchangeable.

Increasing institutional participation in cryptocurrencies also propelled bitcoin, the largest and most popular crypto asset, to an all-time peak of $52,640 on Wednesday.

“Ethereum is really undervalued, and I believe it has been … due to its more complex narrative,” said Luis Cuende, co-founder of Aragon, a decentralized application on the ethereum blockchain.

“A global computing network for Web3 (internet 3.0) is extremely exciting and new. I would say over the next three months, we could see ethereum hit $2,500.”

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is currently in consolidation mode after hitting a record high. It was last down 0.3% at $52,000. Among the mainstream investors and companies that have recently jumped on bitcoin’s bandwagon were Tesla, Mastercard, and BNY Mellon.

Jeffrey Gundlach, the billionaire chief executive of investment firm DoubleLine Capital, is the latest of the traditional investors who seemed to have a change of heart on bitcoin. He said in a tweet on Thursday that bitcoin may be the stimulus asset, not gold, adding that “lots of liquid poured into a funnel creates a torrent.”

Last month, Gundlach said he was neutral on bitcoin due to its volatility, which was a downgrade of his outlook from overweight.

Another beneficiary of bitcoin’s climb as a mainstream asset was the surge in trading volume for Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the world’s first bitcoin exchange traded fund, which was approved by Canadian regulators. Purpose started trading on Thursday.

More than C$80 million of Purpose were traded in the first few hours after its launch. By comparison, volume for the Bitcoin Fund, a closed-end investment fund, was about C$30 million.

CME data, meanwhile, showed nearly 1,900 ETH futures contracts were traded for the first five days after last week’s launch or about 92,800 ether, equivalent to roughly $160 million.

Around 27% of volume came from outside the United States and more than 33% traded during non-U.S. trading hours.

(1 U.S. dollar = C$1.2698)

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

By Shivani Kumaresan and Amal S

(Reuters) – The FTSE 100 was muted on Friday as a bigger-than-expected drop in January retail sales underscored the business damage from a prolonged nationwide lockdown, while NatWest group fell after swinging to an annual loss.

The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 was flat as gains in miners Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP Group capped losses.

Oil producers BP and Royal Dutch Shell fell 1.2% and 0.5%, respectively as crude prices slid.

Data on Friday showed British retail sales tumbled much more than expected in January as non-essential shops went back into coronavirus lockdowns. Flash readings of business activity data, due at 0930 GMT, are likely to show the services sector struggling to return to growth in February.

“The 8.2% fall was considerably higher than we’d expected (around 4%), and provides clear evidence the hit to consumer spending is noticeably larger than it was during the November restrictions,” said James Smith, market economist at ING.

He added focus will now be on UK’s COVID-19 vaccination program and easing of restrictions, to drive economic recovery.

The FTSE 100 has recovered nearly 35% from its March 2020 lows but has been largely range-bound since the beginning of this year as a nationwide lockdown hurt business activity, undermining hopes of economic growth in the second half of the year.

The domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index rose 0.2%, with consumer and industrials stocks leading gains.

NatWest fell 0.6% after the financial services provider swung to a full-year loss for 2020 after COVID-19 lockdowns crunched household spending.

Segro Plc rose 1.7% after the real estate investment trust reported a near 11% jump in annual profit for 2020.

Banking group TBC Bank fell 2.3% after a slump in annual underlying profit due to lower interest rates and limited lending growth in the fourth quarter from the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reporting by Shivani Kumaresan and Amal S in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Krishna Chandra Eluri)

By Tommy Wilkes

LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar slipped further on Friday and the euro rebounded after disappointing U.S. data dented optimism for a speedy recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, while sterling edged towards the $1.40 mark.

The U.S. currency had been rising as a jump in Treasury yields on the back of the so-called reflation trade encouraged investors back into the greenback.

But an unexpected increase in U.S. weekly jobless claims soured the economic outlook and sent the dollar lower overnight.

On Friday it traded down 0.1% against a basket of currencies, the dollar index now at 90.474.

The string of soft labour data is weighing on the dollar even as other indicators have shown resilience, and as President Joe Biden’s pandemic relief efforts take shape, including a proposed $1.9 trillion spending package.

The euro rose 0.2% to $1.2113. The single currency showed little reaction to German and French flash purchasing manager index data, which unsurprisingly showed a slowdown in activity in January.

Despite the recent rise in U.S. yields, many analysts think they won’t climb too much higher, limiting the benefit for the dollar.

ING analysts said that “the rise in rates will be self-regulating, meaning the dollar need not correct too much higher.”

They see the greenback index trading down to the 90.10 to 91.05 range

Sterling has been the standout performer in 2021 and on Friday rose to $1.3987, an almost three-year high amid Britain’s aggressive vaccination programme.

Given the size of Britain’s vital services sector, analysts say the faster it can reopen the economy the better for the currency.

The dollar bought 105.46 yen, down 0.2% and a continued retreat from the five-month high of 106.225 reached Wednesday.

Many analysts expect the dollar to weaken over the course of the year as it has traditionally done during times of global economic recovery, though it might take some time to develop.

“It looks to me like there’s some exhaustion in that just-straight global reflation theme,” leading the dollar to trend largely sideways for now, said Daniel Been, head of FX at ANZ in Sydney.

(Additional reporting by Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

By Stanley White

TOKYO (Reuters) – Bitcoin is an “economic side show” and a poor hedge against a decline in equity prices, analysts at JP Morgan said in a sobering assessment that could undercut the cryptocurrency’s rise to record highs.

Current prices are well above JP Morgan’s estimates of fair value and the mainstream adoption of bitcoin increases its correlation with cyclical assets, which reduces the benefits of diversifying into bitcoin, the investment bank said in a memo.

Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, last traded at $51,116 on Friday, down from a record high of $52,640 reached on Wednesday. Rival cryptocurrency ether traded near a record of $1,951 reached earlier on Friday.

Bitcoin has surged by 45% so far this month, fuelled by signs it is winning acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, such as Tesla, Mastercard and BNY Mellon, but many observers remain sceptical of the unregulated and highly volatile digital asset.

“Crypto assets continue to rank as the poorest hedge for major drawdowns in equities, with questionable diversification benefits at prices so far above production costs, while correlations with cyclical assets are rising as crypto ownership is mainstreamed,” analysts at JP Morgan said.

Some of bitcoin’s supporters argue that the cryptocurrency is “digital” gold that can hedge against inflation and declines in the dollar.

Based on that logic, bitcoin would need to rise to $146,000 in the long-term for its market capitalisation to equal total private-sector investment in gold via exchange-traded funds or bars and coins, according to JP Morgan.

Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk said on Thursday that owning bitcoin was only a little better than holding cash. He also defended Tesla’s recent purchase of $1.5 billion of bitcoin, which re-ignited mainstream interest in the digital currency.

(Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Sam Holmes)

Another week in 2021 witnessed another few historic moments for Bitcoin. Last week saw a $1.5 billion investment in BTC by Tesla, and Mastercard’s announcement that it would be accepting Bitcoin on its network. This week, BTC crossed through the $50,000 mark for the first time and held levels above $50K for most of the week.

The move past $50K has brought with it much media attention: Bitcoin, which was already riding high in the headlines because of the Tesla announcement, has stayed in the center of attention although not all of that attention has been positive.

For example, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk appeared to put some distance between himself and Bitcoin in a series of Tweets on Thursday night. In response to a Bloomberg interview with Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao, Musk wrote that: “Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is ‘almost’.”

“Tesla’s action is not directly reflective of my opinion. Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company,” Musk explained in another tweet. “[…] However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.”

However, when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.

Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money. The key word is “almost”.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2021

Additionally, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen once again raised her grievances with BTC on Thursday, telling CNBC that it is a “highly speculative asset,” citing BTC’s volatility over the past several years.

Yellen also referenced Bitcoin’s association with illegal activities: “I think it’s important to make sure that it is not used as a vehicle for elicit transactions and that there’s investor protection,” she said.

However, the Treasury Secretary did say that she believes that proper regulation could solve some of Bitcoin’s problems: “regulating institutions that deal in Bitcoin, making sure that they adhere to their regulatory responsibilities, I think is certainly important.”

In addition to the comments by Musk and Yellen, Bitcoin has had to once again face up to its carbon footprint problem. It seems that every time Bitcoin’s price captures media attention in a big way, its carbon footprint inevitably follows: headlines comparing Bitcoin’s energy consumption to that of New Zealand, Switzerland and the Netherlands have populated the cryptosphere for several weeks.

In an interview with Finance Magnates earlier this week, Argo Chief Executive Peter Wall commented that this is a problem the Bitcoin community needs to solve: “It doesn’t make sense to be burning coal to make Bitcoin. That’s just not cool,” he said. “The planet has enough problems as it is [without] adding carbon to the atmosphere to create Bitcoin.”

Still, it may be for Bitcoin that there is no such thing as bad publicly: in spite of the pieces of negative commentary that have been raised against Bitcoin this week, Bitcoin was stronger than ever. At press time, BTC was sitting at roughly $52,800, and showed no signs of backing down.

While BTC may have taken up most of the media spotlight over the past several weeks, it has not been the only cryptocurrency that performed well this week. At press time, Ether (ETH) was sitting at $1930, just $20 short of its latest all-time high; Binance Coin (BNB) had shot up over 40 percent over the last 24 hours, bringing its value to $259.39 at press time. Bitcoin and ETH were both up roughly 10% over the course of the week; BNB had risen a whopping 100%.

Additionally, a number of DeFi assets were performing rather well at press time. According to data from Messari, a number of tokens associated with DeFi projects were up in double-digit or triple-digit percentages over the course of the last seven days; at least 30 of 80 DeFi assets showed gains over the last 24-hour period; of those that showed drops, the worst was less than 25 percent.

A number of analysts have pointed out that when Bitcoin is doing well, DeFi tokens and other altcoins tend to follow: that Bitcoin has some sort of a ‘run-off’ effect. Do Kwon, Co-Founder and CEO of Terraform Labs (TFL), explained the phenomenon to Finance Magnates last week in this way: “as the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin tends to lead while the rest of the industry follows.

Skrill to Release Direct to Crypto Withdrawals FeatureGo to article >>

In other words, crypto markets seem to have entered a sort of halcyon period: Bitcoin is booming, and altcoins, which are already doing quite well, may soon follow.

However, as well as know, nothing gold can stay. How did we get here, and what Is next?

Additionally, Craig Kirsner, MBA, and President of Stuart Estate Planning Wealth Advisors, pointed out to Finance Magnates that institutions have recently been very active with other investing channels related to Bitcoin, specifically, Bitcoin futures markets.

Kirsner explained that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) “has reported volume spikes” in its BTC futures offerings. Additionally, “open interest for large institutional holders in the bitcoin futures contracts [is] at an all-time high. You can also invest in BTC on the publicly traded markets by buying GBTC (the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.)”

However, Tesla’s public investment in Bitcoin last week may have been something of a turning point for BTC: the first time a major publicly-traded company made a sizeable, public investment in BTC.

Therefore, Wu believes that the Bitcoin world is at some kind of a turning point: “institutions are just now turning the corner on accepting bitcoin as a high-quality, investable asset, and I suspect bitcoin will continue to be the first asset in every institution’s foray into crypto,” he said. “Bitcoin will still be the main gateway for most, fulfilling the ‘digital gold’ and ‘store of value’ role.”

But, just as is often the case with retail investors, Bitcoin’s ‘run-off’ effect could also apply to some of the institutional investors that make their way into Bitcoin.

“I hope [Bitcoin] will open their eyes to projects that are just outside the bitcoin frame,” Wu told Finance Magnates.

“There has been massive progress and pockets of true innovation across the ecosystem with networks enabling entirely new use cases like decentralized finance to flourish. It will also separate the winning platforms from the losers as investors looking to find the next BTC or ETH must examine each project individually, rather than assessing them as a collective.”

However, while altcoins will likely follow BTC as it continues to gain higher levels, they will also likely follow Bitcoin when it begins to lose steam. While it is not clear when this might happen, analysts seem to agree that it is an inevitability.

Michael Calce, Advisor for TrustSwap, told Finance Magnates that a pullback in the price of Bitcoin could erase some of the FOMO-induced gains that may have come as a result of the latest media cycle around the Bitcoin-related Tesla and Mastercard announcements. In other words, those who bought into Bitcoin with the expectation that it will continue to appreciate in a linear fashion may exit the market.

“The worst-case scenario for a retrace will make people upset about losses and induce a panic to sell,” Calce said. “However, sometimes retracing is healthy, especially when a coin can rally back to its previous marker or even higher.”

However, even if a pullback is in the cards for Bitcoin in the near future, a number of analysts agree that the narrative of Bitcoin as a store-of-value is gaining strength. As such, Bitcoin is developing fundamental value.

“I do think that Bitcoin can be considered a ‘safe-haven’ or ‘store-of-value’ asset,” Kirsner told Finance Magnates. “There is a finite amount of it and it is a true growing technology.” Therefore, “I do believe crypto adoption will increase in 2021 amongst both institutional investors and average investors,” he said.

Therefore, even if there is a pullback at $55K, it may not be long before BTC reaches back to $55,000 and beyond. Calce said: “as we see more people and companies get involved with Bitcoin, it will organically rise and surpass $55K.”

“[…] Trust is always the main component and people are starting to trust Bitcoin more than before,” Calce explained.

A New Article on the Insurance Panda Website Explains How Some Boutique Insurance Companies are Already Allowing Payments with Bitcoin, and How Others May Do So in the Future

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 18, 2021 / The founders of Insurance Panda, an auto insurance quotes provider based in New York City, are pleased to announce that they have just posted a new article to their website that addresses an interesting topic: using bitcoin to pay for auto insurance premiums.

To read the article, which is titled "Can You Pay for Auto Insurance with Bitcoin?" in its entirety, please visit -bitcoin/.

As a company spokesperson noted, the founders of Insurance Panda know that millions of people around the country are bitcoin holders. After questioning whether auto insurance companies were accepting bitcoin as payment, the founders were inspired to research, write and post the new article.

While no major insurer currently accepts bitcoin, the article noted, some boutique insurance companies do accept this form of payment. In general, these insurance companies are small and regional, and they may be eager to announce their acceptance of bitcoin as a way to get favorable publicity.

"New England's Premier Shield Insurance, for example, recently announced it was accepting bitcoin for insurance premiums," the article noted, adding that Premier Shield Insurance requires policyholders to receive underwriting approval before paying premiums with bitcoin.

"Once the company approves you, however, you can freely pay for premiums with bitcoin."

It may also be possible to pay for car insurance with bitcoin in an indirect way. As the article pointed out, if an insurer accepts debit and credit card payments, drivers may be able to pay for premiums using a bitcoin debit or credit card.

As the article noted, supporters of bitcoin claim there are a number of advantages to accepting this form of payment. For instance, the first major insurance company to do this may receive a great deal of positive attention from their policyholders, as well as the media and bitcoin holders.

"It's also possible that Tesla and other companies could accept bitcoin for insurance in the near future," the article noted.

"If bitcoin continues to become more popular and accepted as a currency, however, it's possible insurers will accept bitcoin in the coming years."

About Insurance Panda:

Insurance Panda is an auto insurance quotes provider based out of New York City. In business since 2012, Insurance Panda has provided more than one million free auto insurance quotes to American drivers. Please visit https://www.insurancepanda.com for a free insurance quote today.

CONTACT: James Major [email protected] 3477418290

SOURCE: InsurancePanda

Total crypto market cap added $100 billion to its value for the period since Monday and now stands at $1,558 billion. The top ten coins are showing mixed results for the last 24 hours with Binance Coin (BNB) growing by 29 percent while Ripple’s XRP (XRP) erased 2.4 percent. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $51,243 on the Bitstamp daily chart, ether (ETH) climbed up to $1,895.

Bitcoin closed the previous trading week with a 25 percent of a price increase. During the intraday session on Sunday, February 14, the coin hit the $49,667 mark, which was then sitting at the diagonal uptrend line.

It was the fourth time in the last five days for BTC to reach this mid-term resistance and traders were referring to it as the next big uptrend trigger point.

The new seven-day period started with a short pullback to $47,881 on Monday. The BTC/USD pair was consolidating for its next leg up as the psychological level at $50,000 was closed than ever.

The second day of the trading week came with another attempt to break the mentioned diagonal resistance. This time, buyers pushed the price up to $50,558 before closing the session at $49,178. Still, bitcoin finally broke the $50k mark while most of the altcoins were trying to find their bottom after a three-day-long correction. The main factor behind the double-digit pullbacks in the major alts was the fact market participants were cashing out their positions to chase the biggest cryptocurrency while it was making its new all-time highs.

The mid-week session on Wednesday was when BTC finally surpassed the upper limit of the corridor. It skyrocketed all the way up to $52,190, adding 6 percent to its market capitalization.

As of the time of writing this, bitcoin is hovering around $51,253.

24-hour trading volumes increased from $56 billion on Sunday to $68 billion on Thursday morning.

The Ethereum Project token ETH reached an all-time high of $1,875 on Saturday, February 13. The coin started correcting its price in the evening part of the session as profit-taking activities were kicking in. The coin was taking a breath before preparing the long-expected attempt to break the psychological level of $2,000. It ended the seven-day period at $1,802 or 11.5 percent up compared to where it was the same time a week ago.

On Monday, the ETH/USD pair continued to slide. It dropped as low as $1,660 as the entire altcoin market was severely bleeding. Still, the coin managed to recover during the second part of the trading day and used the $1,775 level as support to close the daily candle at $1,780.

The ether remained flat on Tuesday and even though it was moving up and down in the $1,720 – $1,820 zone, it avoided further losses and stabilized in the support area.

The third day of the workweek came with another run to $1,850. The level was now acting as horizontal resistance. This move resulted in 3.6 percent being added to ETH’s valuation.

As of the time of writing, the ether is trading at $1,895